Thank goodness we're finally safe, everyone! I feel so incredibly safe I can barely sleep at night — partly from relief, partly from the faint red glow of the dashboard camera evaluating my facial expressions for signs of independent thought. Remember when driving was about getting somewhere? Now the car watches you, the road watches you, the toll booth photographs you, and somewhere an algorithm decides whether your blinker-to-lane-change ratio indicates sufficient loyalty to remain a licensed citizen. And those anti-distraction cameras! You're no longer trusted to glance at a road sign without the system assuming you're filming a TikTok. The camera knows. The camera always knows. And the camera, unlike you, never had a stressful Tuesday.

I also adore the financial supervision. Every coffee I buy with my card is lovingly noted and stored in case someone - anyone - someday needs to review my caffeine patterns for national security purposes. Two espressos before 9 AM? Possible instability. Four beers Saturday? Risk factor. Thirteen emergency Toblerones during tax season? Irrefutable character assessment.

My phone tracks my location so faithfully I couldn't match its dedication if I tried. It knows I went to the pharmacy Thursday. It knows I took the scenic route Friday. It probably knows I stood outside the bakery six minutes deciding whether to treat myself and walked away empty-handed - proving to whichever algorithm monitors such things that I possess both self-discipline and poor decision-making skills simultaneously.

Facial recognition cameras mean I no longer suffer the indignity of walking through a city anonymously like some 2003 peasant. I'm identified, timestamped, and filed - because a free citizen moving through public space unnoticed is clearly a missed opportunity for database enrichment.

But here's my absolute favorite part. All this magnificent safety infrastructure - every camera, every log, every database, every tracking system - it's all in the hands of whoever happens to be in government this season. And governments change. Today's well-meaning bureaucrat administering your data with careful oversight is tomorrow's populist demagogue who noticed you donated to the wrong cause, attended the wrong protest, and Googled the wrong thing on a Tuesday afternoon. Maybe you were researching a school project. Maybe you were just curious. Doesn't matter — the search history doesn't care about context, and neither will they.

And the beauty of the pitch? Nobody ever said "we'd like to watch everything you do forever." They said "safety". One word, carrying all the weight, answering all questions, and conveniently foreclosing further discussion. Safety from what? Don't worry about it. Who controls it? Interesting. Can you influence it? Adorable that you'd ask. The safest person alive is someone in a padded cell under constant supervision. Magnificent safety record. Very low satisfaction. But completely safe - until the warden changes.

It’s good to have reminders of what is and isn’t private.

Google accounts aren’t “free”.

For a series of incidents that have gathered international attention, it interesting to see the police and legal system double down on corruption. It like internationally advertising how crooked the cops are and how corrupt the legal system is to everyone. Do you want tourists to never visit? Because that is how you get tourists to not visit.

I've been following this and he keeps making so many mistakes. Stop talking to the police, bro. Stop trying to get the shop owner on camera.

File lawsuits against the company (I know he tried and the cop refused to issue the summons illegally, so you do it again after filing a complaint against the police), and file every lawsuit possible outside of that district.

But that's not good views for YouTube. He just keeps giving them more ammunition to go after him.

The lesson here is not to trust Google or other non-encrypted storage with your stuff. There are email providers that are more protective of your stuff, but more than that: don't store everything in one place. That way if one account is compromised, not everything is exposed. And American companies are more likely to share your data than European ones.

Yea I watched the video today and it was a good wake up for me to continue my process to move from google. I have started some time ago already but have been doing it in increments. I still have an android phone and moving away from it will be a pain.

it would seem their whole legal system is as corrupt as their government

Given the US is currently rotting from the top down and the bottom up I wonder if this guy will get lucky and find some help from the middle that isn't yet so corrupt.

What was the value of the Lego collection in this scandal? 200k? It's wild just how far people are willing to go over what's ultimately not even enough money to retire off of, and only a couple of years' living expenses in some cities

Am I wrong or is $100k not even money enough for how big this scandal has been?

the local police dept and criminal justice system has been colluding with the criminals (all members of the local Mormon church)

Sounds about on par for the corrupt, death cult religionists. Quick! Someone steal their magic underwear and ransom it back to them for the LEGOs!

If someone out there still thought the cops was the good guys, this is mainstream enough that its going to open some eyes to the belief that all cops are bad cops.

We've been saying how corrupt police are and how they are like a gang that sticks up for themselves first and foremost. Now the youth get to experience that second hand in a way that the public can't confuse them about race issues or make it about issues anything other than what it is.

I know its stupid for reckless Ben to not use a lawyer but this way we get to see straight up every avenue they use to try to abuse their power.

So is the youtuber the one who got his lego stolen? Or is he just a journalist reporting on this story?

Story is interesting, the video is a chaotic abomination of bad storytelling.

~~Don't~~ be evil

Some jack off corrupt podunk cop shop can clearly ubpoena your entire life if you piss off the wrong person, then fabricate charges or create circumstances to fuck your life. This is here, now. Reclaim your digital sovereignty from big tech...

The rules seem to be so loose and open to interpretation around privacy etc. What makes self hosted data different? Surely that's not a major barrier to big tech, the government, the lawmakers etc.?

If they really wanted to, I'm sure they could just decide, "as of today we can take your self hosted data, so we will swing by at 4pm to collect it". 4pm comes, they are at your door, what are you gonna do? They come and take your data, you know it's wrong, what are you gonna do?

I just worry that even the holy grail of privacy, i.e. self hosted data, is going to be of little consequence to them. If people want your data bad enough, they will do wherever is needed to get it. Change laws? No problem. Reduce rights? Yep we're in it. And so on.

It seems like the only truly safe way to store your data is by not putting it anywhere other than in your head.

IIRC The Civil Rights Lawyer from Audit the Audit is helping him out. Shit is fucked if it has his attention. Hope it turns out ok.

Damn, I hadn't heard about this but that video is a wild ride...

Oh ive been following this. I said to myself from the get go he should not be using any big tech products at all. This is what happens.